Universal drilling and milling machine with several exchangeable toolheads

ABSTRACT

A universal drilling and milling machine having a plurality of toolheads which are attachable to a horizontal cross slide, and which are associated with independent drive means or the like. The horizontal slide is provided on its end face and its side faces with Tee-slots to which the toolheads can be attached directly or indirectly with the interposition of extension units.

Waited States Patent [191 Muller, deceased UNIVERSAL DRILLING AND MILLING MACHINE WITH SEVERAL EXCHANGEABLE TOOLHEADS Inventor: Johann Muller, deceased, late of Unterhaching, Germany by Katharina Muller, legal representative Assignee: Friedrich Deckel Aktiengese'llschaft.

Munich, Germany Filed: Mar. 26, 1973 Appl. No: 344,847

Foreign Application Priority Data Apr. 5, 1972 Germany 22l640l US. Cl. 408/234 R, 90/11 R Int. Cl. B23b 47/00, B23c 1/12 Field of Search 90/11 R, 15 R, l6, 18;

[4 1 Feb. 18, 1975 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 22028,?27 l/l936 Perry et al. .i 408/234 Primary ExaminerGil Weidenfeld Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Woodhams, Blanchard & Flynn [57] ABSTRACT A universal drilling and milling machine having a plurality of toolheads which are attachable to a horizontal cross slide, and which are associated with independent drive means or the like. The horizontal slide is provided on its end face and its side faces with Tee-slots to which the toolheads can be attached directly or indirectly with the interposition of extension units.

4 Claims, 5 Drawing lFigures PATENTED FEB] 8 I975 sum 3 [IF 3 UNIVERSAL DRILLING AND MILLING MACHINE WllTH SEVERAL EXCHANGEABLE TOOLI-IEADS FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a universal drilling and milling machine comprising a plurality of toolheads which are attachable to a horizontal cross slide and which are provided with independent drive means or the like of their own.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Such machines are capable, depending upon the number of toolheads that are provided, for instance of machining several workpieces at the same time. Moreover, within limits the toolheads can usually be adjusted on the surface to which they are attached so that within these limits the working range in one coordinate direction can be enlarged in relation to that available in conventional machines.

Machines of the contemplated kind have already been proposed in which the toolheads can be clamped to a common mounting plate which is secured to a horizontal cross slide. The mounting plate is large enough to carry say four toolheads side-by-side in the longitudinal direction of the machine, or to permit one toolhead to be moved within this displaceability range. No other arrangements are possible. One objection to this equipment is that whenever only one toolhead is needed the entire unused mass of the mounting plate must also be moved to and fro. Considering the weight of such a plate and its extension in space this may well be a considerable nuisance (cf. catalogue of Messers RAM- BAUDI, RAMCOP 1000).

It is the object of the present invention so to improve a machine tool of the specified kind that a substantially wider choice is avilable fordisposing the toolheads and that the range of possible applications of the machine and its flexibility will be much more varied without at the same time requiring unused weight to be moved about.

According to the invention this is achieved by providing the end and side faces of the horizontal slide with means of attachment, such as Tee-slots, to which toolheads can be attached directly or indirectly with the interposition of extension units.

The invention makes it possible to attach toolheads both to the end face and side faces of the horizontal slide. This already enlarges the applicability range quite considerably. In this context it should be stated that the term side face is intended also to include for instance the top of the horizontal slide. Furthermore, it is contemplated attaching the toolheads to the horizontal slide with the interposition of extension units. Provided these extension units are suitably designed for size, the possible variations in the disposition of the toolheads can be further increased. Moreover, the proposal has the substantial advantage over conventional machine tools that the extension units need be provided for carrying toolheads only where they are required, so that is is unnecessary in the machine to move masses that serve no useful purpose.

According to another feature of the invention it is proposed that the extension units should roughly have the shape of cubes, so that one of their side faces may be provided with fastening means to secure them to the horizontal slide and the other side faces with means of attachment, such as Tee-slots, for attaching additional extension units or toolheads to them. A horizontal slide can thus be enlarged by adding unit extensions, the limit of further enlargement being theoretically governed only by the rigidity of the basic machine.

The toolheads are each provided with drive means of their own, i.e. it is unnecessary to transmit driving torque from a common central motor to the several toolheads by mechanical transmission means. In order to prevent the drive means which usually project from the toolheads in one particular direction from interfering with the free choice of the manner in which the toolheads are to be attached to the horizontal slide or to the extension units it is proposed to design the housing containing the drive means and possibly also the gearing for driving the tool so that it can be turned about an axis parallel to the tool axis.

In a manner which as such is already known in the art the proposed machine tool may also be arranged to do copy milling work. For this purpose a hydraulic tracing attachment may be attached to the horizontal slide for controlling hydraulic feeds in all three coordinate directions. In order to permit such a machine to be used for mirror-reverse milling the machine column carrying the horizontal slide may be associated with a supplementary support for a supplementary slide which can be coupled to the horizontal slide by motion-reversing couplingmeans. According to a feature of the present invention this supplementary slide may also be provided with means of attachment for the direct or indirect affixation thereto through interposed extension units of toolheads and, more particularly, of conventional tracing attachments for feed control.

Equipment of the described kind permits mirrorreversed machining ,of workpieces, the toolhead attached to the horizontal slide cross feeding in a direction contrary to that of the tracer on the supplementary slide. Furthermore, an additional toolhead may be attached to the supplementary slide and this toolhead would then also move together with and in the same direction as the tracer. A mirror-reversed and an unreversed copy of a master could thus be produced simultaneously.

The invention also provides for the disengagement of the motion-reversing coupling between the horizontal and the supplementary slides to enable both to be pushed into a desired relative initial position. Furthermore, the supplementary slide carrying the tracer could be locked and the horizontal slide independently, for instance intermittently, traversed. This would for instance enable a three-dimensional cylindrical blank to be machined by reference to a two-dimensional circular template.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention is illustratively shown in the drawing and will be hereinafter described in greater detail. In the drawing FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a universal drilling and milling machine showing a number of special extension units for additional toolheads,

FIG. 2 is a perspective representation of a single extension unit,

FIG. 3 is a perspective fragmentary representation of a machine fitted with two toolheads on special extension units,

FIG. 4 is a machine set up for hydraulically controlled copy milling work, and

FIG. is a machine set up for mirror reversed copy milling.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to FIG. 1 a machine in conventional manner comprises a base 2 and a column 4 which carries a vertically adjustable slide 6 on which is mounted a longitudinally traversing worktable 8. Moreover, the column also carries a horizontal cross slide 10 which is adapted, for instance, to feed a tool.

The end face 12 as well as the side faces of the horizontal slide, only one of the side faces, viz. 14, being visible, are provided with Tee-slots 26 for clamping further components thereto. These Tee-slots can be used for the affixation to the horizontal slide of toolheads or of extension units 16, 18, which are themselves again capable of carrying further toolheads or further extension units.

It will be understood, more particularly with reference to FIG. 2 that the extension or spacer units are roughly of cubical shape. One of their side faces 22 is provided with means, such as holes 24 in the drawing, for securing the extension unit to the horizontal slide. The other vertical side faces are provided with Teeslots 28. Naturally the horizontal side faces of the extension unit as well as the top of the horizontal slide might also be provided with Tee-slots, although this is not specifically shown to avoid over-complicating the drawing.

In FIG. 3 an extension unit 30, 32 is affixed to each side of the horizontal slide 10. The front face of the extension unit 32 carries a horizontal milling head 34 provided with an independent drive. The independent drive comprises a motor 36 which drives a working spindle 40 through gearing contained in a gearbox 34.

The extension unit carries a vertical milling head 42 on one of its side faces. In this instance the gearbox 44 and the motor 46 have been turned 90 about a vertical axis in relation to the spindle case 48. Hence the two gearboxes 38 and 44 are codirectionally aligned and there is enough room for the two to be located side-by-side. It will also be understood from FIG. 3 that the extension unit 32 is attached to the rear of the side face of the horizontal slide.

FIG. 4 is an arrangement in which a vertical milling head 50 is attached to an extension unit, whereas a second vertical milling head 52 is attached directly to the face 12 of the horizontal slide 10. The remaining side face of the horizontal slide carries an arm 54 which carries a hydraulic tracer attachment 56. This hydraulic tracer attachment controls the hydraulic feeds of the worktable and of the horizontal slide in a manner not shown in the drawing and permits copy milling to be simultaneously performed on two like workpieces.

FIG. 5 illustrates a special arrangement for mirrorreversed copy milling. The horizontal slide 10 on one side face carries a cube-shaped extension unit 60 which in turn carries a vertical milling head 62 (indicated in dashed outlines). On the side of the horizontal slide which faces away from this vertical head a support 64 securely affixed to the machine column carries a supplementary slide 66 which is not affixed to the horizontal slide but is coupled thereto by a suitable motionreversing gearing. This supplementary slide also contains Tee-slots on its face and side. Clamped to its face is a second vertical milling head 68 (in dashed outline),

whereas the side face carries a hydraulic copy tracing attachment 70 (dashed outline) in a manner analogous 5 to FIG. 4. The motion-reversing coupling between the horizontal and supplementary slides is arranged to be releasable to permit the two slides to be set in any desired relative position. Moreover, the supplementary slide when uncoupled from the horizontal slide is lockable in the crosswise direction so that by intermittently feeding the horizontal slide in the crosswise direction it is possible from two-dimensional templates (profiled lengthwise and in depth) to machine three-dimensional workpieces. These latter arrangements are already known in the art and they are not therefore illustrated in detail.

I claim:

1. The combination of a universal drilling and milling machine having a base and a plurality of toolheads each being readily movable by a machine operator and equipped with self-contained drive means and first securement means adapted to secure said toolheads to means defining a rectangular-shaped horizontal cross slide having end faces and side faces, said horizontal cross slide means comprising means defining a plurality of first fastening means on at least one of said end faces and on at least one of said side faces, said first securement means being adapted to cooperate with said first fastening means to secure said toolheads thereto whereby said machine operator can select and interchange said toolheads to vary the location of said toolheads relative to said base.

2. The combination of a universal drilling and milling machine having a base and a plurality of toolheads each being readily movable by a machine operator and equipped with self-contained drive means and first securement means adapted to secure said toolheads to means defining a rectangular-shaped horizontal cross slide having end faces and side faces, said horizontal cross slide means comprising means defining a plurality of first fastening means on at least one of said end faces and on two oppositely facing side faces, said first securement means being adapted to cooperate with said first fastening means to secure said toolheads thereto, said combination further including spacer means being readily movable by said machine operator having second securement means thereon on one surface thereof adapted to cooperate with said first fastening means and a plurality of second fastening means on another surface thereof adapted to cooperate with said first securement means, said spacer means being selectively utilizable between said toolheads and said horizontal cross slide whereby said machine operator can select and interchange said toolheads to vary the location of said toolheads relative to said base. The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

3. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said spacer means have the shape roughly of cubes.

4. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said first and second securement means are Tee-slots and wherein said first and second fastening means are means adapted to cooperate with said Tee-slots.

Patent No.

Inventor(s) It is certified that error appears Dat Februarv 18. 1975 Johann Muller (deceased) Katharina MuHenr,

legal representative in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 4, line 17; delete "I claim: and substitute therefor the following The embodiments of the line 55;

line 56;

line 57;

Signed and (SEAL) Attest:

RUTH C. MASON Attesting Officer or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:-.

delete delete delete sealed "The embodiments" in its entirety.

in its entirety.

this lst day of July 1975.

ih-XRSI-ZALL DANE? Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks 

1. The combination of a universal drilling and milling machine having a base and a plurality of toolheads each being readily movable by a machine operator and equipped with self-contained drive means and first securement means adapted to secure said toolheads to means defining a rectangular-shaped horizontal cross slide having end faces and side faces, said horizontal cross slide means comprising means defining a plurality of first fastening means on at leAst one of said end faces and on at least one of said side faces, said first securement means being adapted to cooperate with said first fastening means to secure said toolheads thereto whereby said machine operator can select and interchange said toolheads to vary the location of said toolheads relative to said base.
 2. The combination of a universal drilling and milling machine having a base and a plurality of toolheads each being readily movable by a machine operator and equipped with self-contained drive means and first securement means adapted to secure said toolheads to means defining a rectangular-shaped horizontal cross slide having end faces and side faces, said horizontal cross slide means comprising means defining a plurality of first fastening means on at least one of said end faces and on two oppositely facing side faces, said first securement means being adapted to cooperate with said first fastening means to secure said toolheads thereto, said combination further including spacer means being readily movable by said machine operator having second securement means thereon on one surface thereof adapted to cooperate with said first fastening means and a plurality of second fastening means on another surface thereof adapted to cooperate with said first securement means, said spacer means being selectively utilizable between said toolheads and said horizontal cross slide whereby said machine operator can select and interchange said toolheads to vary the location of said toolheads relative to said base. The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
 3. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said spacer means have the shape roughly of cubes.
 4. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said first and second securement means are Tee-slots and wherein said first and second fastening means are means adapted to cooperate with said Tee-slots. 